Saturday, June 30, 2007

031 - But did you know THIS?

I'm soon leaving this city for a summer job, so UEv0 won't progress any further editing-wise during July. But here is one more preview pic from UEv0:

Yep, it's them. The whole trio + the rogue with a dark past are going to be featured in UEv0. Everything's been done under Rurikar's permission. Hopefully that picture does not cause any major ultimate attacks (because then they'd have to be counter-attacked).

Friday, June 29, 2007

030 - SECOND PLACE!!! w00t!! (includes also a making of)

Woot woot woot!

I just got an e-mail from machinima.com that I have gotten to second place in the music video making contest. This took me by total surprise since when the votes were going on, I was 3rd. But no way in hell I'm complaining :D

Thanks to everyone who voted and grats to fellow winners!

One of the coolest thing in this contest was the voting. Everyone got to rate every movie. That was a good idea compared to the more traditional "pick your favourite". Now it was possible to have more than one favourite :)

So let's get to the making of!

When I heard the three songs available, I knew this was it. The imagery about the story and the plotline slowly started to flow my mind. The original version of the story for the video was much more darker and even more tragic, but I had to scrap it since there were only three minutes to use.

I also wanted parts of the story to happen in the viewers mind. The video moves jumps in time and you get to fill the empty spots yourselves :)

Before someone back there shouts 'Sequel!' I'm gonna say no. Unless of course an other song comes along which tells the story on, but currently I'm happy for what it is.

I gotta quote Silet from Myndflame forums here: "If the viewers enjoyed your work, as well as yourself, then you succeeded at making a good Machinima."

Thursday, June 28, 2007

029 - Model viewers!

Some of you might know that I've been searching for model viewers for other games (and I still am, so please inform me about them if you know any). Since sharing is caring, I'll now introduce some model viewers for you.

Basically it does the same thing as WoW model viewer but in WC3. I just downloaded it yesterday and from the small fiddling around it seems to do almost all the same tricks as WMV does. The program can view charachters and things like bridges, trees etc. I might use it in UEv0 or some other movie.

I was like w00t when someone mailed about this to me at WCM. Unfortunately it's no use for me since it lacks the blue/greenscreening options. Also my version of UT2k4 was too new and the models were kind of screwed up. I don't think this tool is much use to us machinimakers but UT2K4 modellers might get something out of it.

Half-Life 2 model viewerAvailable only through Steam, original copy of HL2 required. Comes along with Source SDK.

I used this one in UEv3. It has some use for machinimaking, but the controlling of the models is not easy (or as straightforward as in WMV). Fraps does not work correctly with this one either (on a single-core system), when I recorded something with my main pc the resolution was cut in half (I used my laptop for the UEv3 shots).

As an idea a very promising model viewer. This program can view Final Fantasy X, X-2, XII and Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2 models. But the downside is that you need to extract an image of your game disc to your hd and after that extract the models from the image.

Also the modelviewer is currently in quite early stages, so it's not good for machinimaking yet. For example you can't change the background color (only grey available) and the camera controls are not the best. For creating fan-art or website graphics this tool sounds nice.

Hopefully this model viewer gets developed even further, I really would like to feed some FF charachters to murlocs. Muahahah >:D

I used this one in Project Sunset (gawd that movie sucks). It can rotate the cars from the game and that's pretty much all it does. No wheel animation or anything else. If you want to get a WoW charachter into a car, either Photoshopping or using masking is the way to go.

This one is a pretty cool tool, but unfortunately rather useless due to the low resolution it uses. It allows you to view both models and scenes (maps) from the game. Worth checking out if you can get your hands on the game.

And then there are the original WoW model + map viewers, but I think everyone knows those two so no longer explanation about them is needed.

Last but not least there is of course Garry's mod. I do not consider as a model viewer but a cool tool instead. I have just gotten it, gotta learn more about it and see in what perverse ways I can use it in machinimation.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

028 - Wandering Dreamscape

STFU and go watch this. Now. Actually you need to download it. That Google video does not do the movie enough justice.

This is the best model change movie by Snoman. That only means that the next one will be even better, right? ;)update & edit: replaced the not-so-well functioning Filefront stream window with a Google Video one

"Ladies, paladins, gasanars and gentlemen - WELCOME TO THIS EVENING'S PRESENTATION! Today we see the world (of warcraft) in a different light. And now.. ON WITH THE SHOW!"

If that flashy window does not work, you can view and download the movie via this link.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

027 - Questions To Answers! (Or was it the other way round..?)

Lol, Lightwell! vol. 10+Yes, it is coming. But I have no idea when, how or why. I only have a few retarded ideas for it, one being Vaelastraz the Corrupt traveling back in time to Stormwind to the year 1984. Expect pop-music from the eighties and Commodore 64 references. Also, there will be spinning! Because /console pitchlimit 999 still lives on private places!

But wait, there's even more! To maintain the plagiarizing tradition, the next "Lol, Lightwell" will feature a comments on comments section. Unless I get killed before that, since now The Love song by Gasanar (tm) can now be seen by the whole world (thanks Wowinsider!). And let's not forget Orimo's sex dance (I have to clone that on WoWmodelviewer in the future, Orimo dared to sell his sex dancing costume!).

The Ataris contest downloadable versionWill be out when the contest is over. Download will be available at warcraftmovies.com - in HD720p so quality freaks rejoice!

025 - World Of Predatorcraft

This movie, "World Of Predatorcraft" has the honor to be the first movie made by other author which I embed on this blog.

Basically it's a WoW machinimation of the legendary scifi-action movie Predator (from the era where action movies kicked ass and were not that sissy pg-13 crap).

This movie is really well made imo, considering that it is completely done in-game on a live realm. I don't think that I would do a bigger movie (one involving many charachters) like this, but who knows.

Here's a direct link to the movie. The stream window is bigger at the other end plus you can download it too.

Friday, June 22, 2007

024 - Hyvää Juhannusta!

My camera got drunk from all the alcohol in the picture, so it recorded things that were not actually there.

Or were they?update 23/06: made the pic a bit better, more colourization & shadow effect to the warlockA biggerversion of the image is available via this link

Juhannus? WTF?

To quote Tarabulus, the undead paladin: "...just an other excuse for Finns to get drunk." For a more boring historical or whateverish explanation check this at wikipedia. Unfortunately I'm not gonna set any bonfires ablaze, but as those bottles get emptier and evening progresses, who knows >:)

(On a side note, at the time of writing I haven't yet drank anything:)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

023 - The second coming of the biohazard

Pictures first:

So here it is, the second coming of The Barrens Biohazard (TBB). Originally created by me around march this year. I just happened to fuck up the files somehow back then and lost the interest to modify the file more. But for my luck, Snoman had more interest than I did so TBB is now better than before :)

Lot of things have changed from the early version. The whole place has now a eerie greenish glow, there's a nice mushroom house on Xroads and so on. Some of the original structures and plants of Barrens were left intact, just to show that the infection is not fully spread.

These pictures just don't do any justice to the thing in motion.. you will see it on either the upcoming movie by Snoman or at UEv0 (whenever it comes out).

I may make a SilentHillish movie of it's own to TBB during my vacation - that is if I have time. Most likely I will have, but if someone makes an offer about going to a terrace and drinking cold cider.. no refusing!

Monday, June 18, 2007

021 - Back on track!

I'm back. A weekend without WoW and machinimating was pretty cool. New ideas and stuff :)

Once again I am one step closer to becoming the emperor and undisputed ruler of the universe. More simply put: I'm one of the 10 finalists in the Ataris contest. If you wish to give your votes to me (actually you can vote every movie!), march towards this direction.

This post will be short, these damn anti-allergy pills make me tired. GrlWrlRgLgrGLrGL + zZzzZz....

Now.. if machinima.com allows the contestants to vote, I'll have a hard time between choosing those two. The DWP video is generally just so fricking cool and the video by Sedrin merges WoW and lyrics of the song together really well, not to mention the spot on editing.

Good luck to all contestants and may the force be with you. Dark side or the paladin side, your choice.

And then there's my summer job.. An one month break from making major machinima. As my job is not going to be that uberdemanding, I'm gonna spend time working on my dearest project of all: Chronicles Of The Dawn - Operation Scholomance.

Here comes the public announcement: I will be remaking part one with my improved skills. In it's current form I really dislike the movie and I am ashamed to show it to people. It has too many errors and totally too much cheese in the plot. And not using voice actors was a bad idea. I will tell more when I have the story written on paper and more things planned. You can watch the movie here.

The whole story arc of CotD will be a two-parter. To explain it better, it will be like two books (one being sequel to other) split into two parts. Four movies total. Big plan, will see if I get it done.

I've been thinking about CotD almost every day since I made it. What will happen to the charachters, in which order they start to die etc. I have ambitious goals for the project, but still I'm gonna keep my feet on the ground.

It's kinda nice to go back home for a while. I was also thinking should I go to the Tuska Open Air Metal festival (tuska means pain in Finnish). It's a three-day outdoor metal festival in the heart of Helsinki. Doing something crazy and spontaneous kicks ass, once I went on a Swedish cruise trip just like that.

Despite it's musical style Tuska is really one of the nicest festivals. I was in Tuska last time in year 2005 and I felt really boooooooored. I skipped Tuska 2006 since there was nothing interesting in the line-up and I was outta money.

The thing that got me interested in Tuska 2k7 is that Emperor is playing there. Motherfricking Emperor! A comeback gig. Emperor was one of the bands which I really wanted to see live when I was even more into metal. I still am but not that much. And this brings us to machinima again.. I've been thinking how would a black metal machinima look like. I don't know if one should be even done, since using WoW it would look comical :D

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

019 - Ancient Times...

"Let's go back to the rock.. Let's go back to the rock.. and see it at four forty!"-Apollo 440 - Ain't talkin' 'bout Dub

Now something different. A few of my movies from the ancient times, when I was starting my machinimation career. The first one is almost as retarded as me.

"The Adventures Of Dilligaf *)" tells the epic story of a lv1+ troll Dilligaf walking around the World (of Warcraft), trying to gank and get ganked. Features filthy language (in the music).

*)D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. = Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck

"Twill For The Kill!" is an advertisement for the most imbaest set ever made - Twill. This movie is also my first machinima where I used only WoW model viewer. Not that special of a movie really. Made in 2006 too. This movie was the thing that eventually spawned "Two Gnomes And A Tauren: The Quest For Twill".

"Raid Together, Die Alone" is sort of an prehistoric Unlimited Escapism. Featuring the coolest shots from some of our best raids (oh those were THE days), the second part of the Soos vs Murlocs war and BOOBS after the end credits.

I'll be posting more of my golden oldies here in the future. For a complete archive of my works, check the Nublock Archive v0.1 (almost all of the movies have streams).

018 - My Ultimate Attack

017 - Boobs And Titties! (o )( o)

The work on UEv0 goes well. I've made some rather imba scenes which I am very proud of. As UEv3 was more of a feeling video (it shows on the WCM rating, just as I expected), UEv0 will be action.

Release of UEv0 might be delayed, even for a month. I will so not be releasing it until I'm 100% happy with it. The delay just comes from the simple fact that I have gotten a job for July. That means moving to my old home town for the time being. My laptop is not a HAL9000 so no imba machinimaking that time.

I will try to make some little machinimas then, but a break from the bigger things might not be a bad thing at all.

Million cheers for Snoman (or Snobaste, whichever is your official nickname :P)! He fixed The Barrens Biohazard mapchange (I screwed it up by being a n00b) and also improving it. I'll be posting pictures of it and one other mapchange of his which will play an important part in UEv0.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

015 - The Making Of Unlimited Escapism vol. 3

"It's a sin to see this in Youtube quality. Download the high resolution now!"-Gobbler, Myndflame

Oh my fricking god. Even the gods like the productions of such a lowly worm as me :D The nice myndflame fellows gave me a webspace on their site! Made me go, like, w00t. Check it out here (click the image which is full of BS).

Even though the songs were great (the vinyl of 'Venla' is one of my most preciousssss in ze collection), they just did not do the job. And the job has to be done since UE series are mostly about the music.

So back to browsing the colletion and there it was - Whirlpools track Under The Sun (Solarstone remix) was it. The song brought back memories of cold cider and other cool stuff from 2004. Just like with UEv2 soundtrack I knew that was it.

Then the guest stars. Snoman's imba mapchanges were surely to be included. One of my original ideas was to use them in UEv2 but they just did not fit. But here they do their job perfectly. My favourite of them all still is "The Hillsbrad Dream". THD got even more punch and prettiness now, all those filters made it look really great.

"Olibith is just a Gnome, but a Gnome with altitude. Some says he's weird, others, that he's insane or pervert... You'll have to figure out by yourselves."

It was an honor to have the coolest gnome with attitude to guest star in UEv3! I made him an offer which he had an option to refuse but he did not :D Not many gnomes get to ride a black dragon on City 17. Or run faster than sports cars. Olibith will be seen also on Unlimited Escapism vol. 0!

UEv0?!

Yea, a prequel - or maybe a new spin-off series. Unlimited Escapism vol. 0 will be very different from the other movies. It won't feature trance as soundrtack but drum'n'bass instead. My aim is to make UEv0 a bloody mess (beheadings, murloc killing etc). With style. Also some older and legendary games are going to be featured, namely Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast version).

And the striptease scene from Sin City.

My completely incomplete mapchange "The Barrens Biohazard" is going to be featured on UEv0 as well. For more info on TBB, go back a few posts.

013 - Something Is Coming... Soon!

Sunday, June 3, 2007

012 - The making of "Shake That!"

Here's how it went:

1) Target NPC2) .emote 103) Point & Shoot4) Edit!

All done in one day. No modelviewing at all - private server / emulator FTW in machinimation!

The main thing in a dance video is of course the music. I tried first Darude (his latest track 'Tell Me') and Bomfunk MC's ('Super Electric') but they did not just work. Scooter saves! The thieving germanians (they have 'borrowed' other producers' music without giving credit where credit is due) track 'Shake That' was the perfect fit!